They say that it takes 10 years to learn a skill, but with some things, it takes a little longer. R. Moore Building Conservation’s director, Rory, has spent over 40 years working with stone and in the wider spheres of historic building conservation. It was something that his father, Hugh (who passed away in 2019), shared with him from a very early age.
Hugh was a Monumental Mason. The photograph shows him cutting the letters for a plaque that commemorates a visit by the then Prince Charles and Princess Diana to Pengwern Hall in Rhuddlan, Wales, in 1985.
His work was always beautifully crafted, and he took joy in working with stone. What he passed on to Rory was an age-old respect for craft and tradition, the sanctity of our heritage, and something more—an understanding of patience, of time itself, measured not in days or years but in the slow rhythm of a mason’s chisel. He handed down the quiet knowledge that stone holds memory, that to carve is to converse with the past. He taught the value of a steady hand, of precision not just in the cut but in the intention behind it. Most of all, he passed on the idea that to work with stone is to work with something greater than oneself—something that will endure long after the tools are laid down.
And that is something that generations of the Moore family will always remember him for.
Rory has brought this to his company and is now passing on to another generation—his son, Archie, who is working as an apprentice on historic locations across Wales and the North West of England. Some skills take a decade to master, but others demand more than one lifetime, working their way through generations, ensuring that knowledge, tradition, and respect for the past are never lost.
